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A brook so narrow you hardly got your ankles wet separated a village for over four decades. Because of a chance of landscape, the half a hundred residents of Mödlareuth, a small village surrounded by evergreen groves, pastures and spectacular views, found themselves at the center of the Cold War conflict. They had the unfortunate circumstance to cross the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and Thuringia in the East, a frontier that was demarcated first by a barrier and then by a barricade. American soldiers called it Little Berlin.

Commemorating History

Several months after their own wall was opened, and prior to their nation had become one in 1990, a group of residents set about commemorating their history. The project is close to be completed: on 9 November, the 36th remembrance of the fall of the German barrier, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will open. It was publicly opened by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the beginning of October, but the show was not entirely finished. Speaking to the villagers who lived through the old days, Steinmeier said: “You were witnesses of an brutal separation, which tore families into pieces and turned neighbours into strangers.”

“You were bystanders of an cruel division, which ripped households asunder and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

Past Origins

Starting at its establishment in 1810, the community straddled the Royal Bavaria and the Princely State of Reuss, a royal family best known for giving all its male members the name Heinrich and labeling them in order by date of birth. As Steinmeier related to the audience, the oddity was never an obstacle in the manner of the locals gathering in the same pub, visiting the identical place of worship and sending their children to the identical educational institution.

After the War Division

Subsequently occurred the global conflict. As soon as they came, the Russians put up wooden posts by the creek. For a annual period they occupied the whole hamlet, establishing their command in a dwelling on the Bavarian territory side, decorating it with a image of Stalin and a red star. The Americans persuaded them to withdraw back over the brook. For a while, residents could continue to cross over, though as limitations tightened they were required to show identity papers, despite the fact that everyone knew who they were, and to return at night.

Increase of Boundary Restrictions

Then, in 1952, came barbed wire and the legal sealing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a barrier was erected, with explosives, vehicle barriers and observation points. The locals could still view each other by scaling slopes, but on the eastern side gesturing and shouting were prohibited. A local woman was added to a East German secret police watch list for answering “same to you” to a Bavarian villager who wished her “good new year”.

Exhibition Center Development

I heard stories like these by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has dedicated a large part of his professional career building it. Residents were consulted early on about how what length of structure they wished to keep. They selected a section on the west edge, close to where a local resident managed to flee in the middle of the night with a scaling tool, following which the border was heavily fortified.

Maintained Structures

A pair of guard towers are preserved alongside a set of tableaux illustrating the most impactful moments in the village’s history. As we move, Lebergen details the rules: nobody could get closer than 5km of the boundary. Agricultural workers needed specific authorization to care for their crops; the spouse could operate the agricultural equipment but not both, in case they sought to flee. Soldiers were on duty.

Broader Context

The frontier between West Germany and the East Germany ran 1,400km, from the northern sea in the north to this location in the south. Berlin is recalled and memorialised the most frequently, but over two times more persons (more than 300) lost their lives seeking to traverse it in rural areas than in the big city. Lebegern tells me that 95% of efforts to cross failed.

Community Existence

The majority of Mödlareuth’s villagers were farmers or artisans, who accommodated to dwelling in the uncertain territory between two ideological spheres by keeping their heads down and looking after their land. They nor did they backed the socialist government nor fought it, Robert Lebegern clarifies.

Visitors

For sightseers, however, the hamlet became a type of site of interest. About 15,000 came to visit each year, viewing tools in hand, to gawp – and then swiftly leave. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was shown around by the national security head.

Twenty-five years after reunification, the TV show, a broadcast production about a imaginary hamlet similar to Mödlareuth, led to renewed interest.

Current Changes

The launch of the new museum – with a cafe, boutique, cinema room and sizable car park – is expected to